Pee wee lambert

[grassrootphilosopher]

There are unmistakingly some musicians that have had a huge impact on Bluegrass even though little is known about them.

I had the good fortune to hunt down some Rural Rythm sides about Buzz Busby along with some information. Good.

BUT WHAT ABOUT PEE WEE LAMBERT?

[grassrootphilosopher]

Well, struck the wrong button, so here we go again.

I first heard Pee Wee Lambert 20 or so years back on a Stanley Bros. recording. I was much pleased to hear such a great musician that obviously played like Bill Monroe in the early days. I was much younger then and didn´t realize that this was extremly important, since bluegrass in itself (at least what nowadays is percieved as such) hadn´t been older than 4 - 5 years and that the Stanleys were obviously the first band to take up the genre with Pee Wee in the mandolin spot.

Over the years I found out little more than that he at one time played an F 4 (that apparently was sold here on the cafe), and a Lloyd Loar F 5 fern that had major surgery performed upon (this was also discussed on the cafe).

Pee Wee Lambert as Wikipedia tells you was only about 40 years old at his time of death.

So what about him. Did he play apart from the Stanley brothers? What and where did he play? Did he record apart from the Stanley Bros. Why did he fail to stand tall in the starting folk boom of the 60ies (just before his death). Why is he aparently just known to very few knowledgable mando afficionados.

I hope for your input. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[swampstomper]

Otto,

I also have been fascinated by Pee Wee Lambert's playing and singing on those early Stanley Bros. Melodeon records. I don't know about his career after the Stanleys, but what always struck me about his time with them was the way he imitated Bill Monroe. I believe Carter Stanley once said Pee Wee "worshipped" Monroe to the point of trying to imitate his every gesture musically and personally (he's not the only one to do that of course!!). So that overlayed the Stanley sound with a Monroe sound, which made for some firey music but not very distinctive. When you hear Carter and Ralph's duet on Glass of Wine or Wayside Tavern, or Ralph's solos from that time, you get chills. When you hear PeeWee, you (or at least I) say "amazing how much like Monroe he sounds" (remember, this was the late 40's Monroe). So there was nothing to really set him apart. Why worship someone who worships someone else? Could that be part of the reason for his obscurity?

By contrast, the other (unrelated) Lambert, Curly, had a distinctive mando sound that really meshed well with Ralph's style.

[grassrootphilosopher]

Well, like I said, there´s more to the man.

It´s like the Buzz Busby example, though he to my mind is much more important musicaly, since he seems to be the pivot point of whole Washington D.C. scene. He also had a style of himself, one might say.

Pee Wee Lambert may have tried to imitate Bill Monroe to the extent even that he may have imitated the dress, gait and such (I have read in some book) but so what. Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly and such all imitated Elvis to some extent lookswise, but they also worshipped Monroe and dug deep in his musical style to convert it to Rock and Roll. Would we call them imitators and not look at their achievements. I think not.

So why am I interested in the man. We are looking at folks like Mike Compton with high regard, and rightfully so. He is a master of the Monroe mandolin style and, like Ricky Skaggs, carries on the instrumental tradition. We can learn from them.

From Pee Wee Lambert we may learn too. Frontmost it is about musicianship, but not only. When you think about the first generation bluegrass history comes to mind. How did the music evolve, how has it spread, what impact had musicians on whom that then had their impact on ....

It is fairly obvious with people like Tony Rice, Sam Bush and David Grisman that they had their influences with Monroe and his alumnis but they apparently had their influences coming from jazz (Coltrane), classical (Rudi Cipolla, blues ... Well, you read interviews with them they´ll tell and you can connect their statements to their music.

But what with important hisorical figures like Pee Wee Lambert? Where did he come from, where did he go?

Now Curley Seckler has never been much of a versatile mandolin picker but he played with a stout heart and this surely added to the beauty of his notes. We know where he stands now, he´s got his place in bluegrass history, and rightfully so to (even if it´s more because of his outstanding singing than because of his memorable mandolin playing on let´s say Foggy Mountain Special).

So let´s hear some about Pee Wee Lambert. I don´t mind hearing some about Curly Lambert too. So just lay it on me.

[Red Henry]

Some pretty good information is here:

http://www.answers.com/topic/pee-wee-lambert?cat=entertainment

[cooper4205]

J.D. Crowe got his first pro gig with Lambert's Bluegrass Partners in the early 50's.

[tree]

Lambert's mandolin and vocals on The Lonesome River . . . now that is powerful!

[Ivan Kelsall]

Many thanks for the link Red,it was really nice to read about a mandolin player that i've always enjoyed listening to. His style was as close as you could get to that of his hero,Bill Monroe - nothing wrong with that - i'm trying to emulate John Reischman's & Herschel Sizemore's styles,not slavishly though,i leave enough room for the 'Saska bits',
Saska

[Red Henry]

Now Curley Seckler has never been much of a versatile mandolin picker but he played with a stout heart
Lester once introduced Seck on stage with the statement, "He plays a pretty mean mandolin (in A)."


Red

[evanreilly]

But did Bill Monroe ever make a chop chord like this?

[allenhopkins]

From the front cover of the old Biograph Early Recordings 1948 LP, I would guess?

[Bernie Daniel]

grphilosopher, I assume you have seen this biography written by Eugene Chadbourne of the All Music Guide?

If not here it is.

Biography Pee Wee Lambert

Mandolinist Pee Wee Lambert looks like a happy man in the publicity photographs that exist of him. Perhaps he is grinning at the idea that at the time these photos were taken, he was helping to create a new style of Appalachian music that would be called bluegrass. Or maybe he was just happy that his instrument is the easiest to carry. Lambert was toting his mandolin around, from the mid-'40s onward, with Ralph Stanley as a member of one of the earliest Stanley Brothers bands. This was a music that was in transition between old-time Appalachian music and bluegrass, the actual fibre of the music evolving with different approaches to banjo playing and guitar accompaniment, to name just two instrumental examples. Specific sides, such as the Stanley Brothers' recording of the traditional tune "Molly and Tenbrooks," have been earmarked as being pivotal moments in the evolution of bluegrass by scholars in this field. Others disagree, calling the recording an act of theft. It is said that it was Lambert with his eager ears and trilling fingers who went to a concert by Bill Monroe and learned that artist's arrangement of this traditional fiddle tune, then brought it back to the Stanley crew, dropping a glowing chunk of bluegrass directly in their laps like a hot potato.

In the early '50s, the mandolinist hooked up with Curley Parker, a Kentucky musical virtuoso who had been a master of both guitar and fiddle since practically a child. Like a disc jockey leaping between horses, Parker would grab the guitar for a bluegrass number if the band's other guitarist was an old-time player, or pick up the fiddle for a tune such as "Sally Goodun," if that happened to be too much of an antique for a younger fiddler. The two musical pioneers became co-leaders of the Pine Ridge Boys, and kept the group going for the next decade, membership including banjoist J.D. Crowe at the age of 16, and the fine fiddler Art Wooten. The former hotshot was recruited via word of mouth, and almost left high and dry in his living room when the bandleaders found out the lad was well under the legal limit for hanging out in bluegrass honky tonks. A few minutes of Crowe's picking and the Pine Ridge Boys agreed as a group that the age limit was dumb, anyway. This important group's activity was mostly regional, its recording discography limited by the primitive state of the bluegrass recording industry during this period. While some recording companies were wandering around looking for "folk" artists to record in "them thar hills," these types were not getting turned on by the progressively sped-up tempos, challenging instrumental solos, and altogether more abstract expression of the bluegrass milieu, described best by banjoist Tony Trischka as the "yee-haw factor." Bluegrass recording was done by individuals such a Jim Stanton of Rich R Tone Records, who released some half-a-dozen singles and EPs by Lambert, Parker, and their (sometimes 16-year-old) boys. The Rich R Tone platters were hauled from town to town in the trunk of his car, like jugs of white lightning. The company also released the first recordings of the Stanley Brothers, combining Ralph and Carter Stanley with Lambert and the terrific fiddler Leslie Keith, the lineup that created the controversial "Molly and Tenbrooks" side.

Lambert was born Darrell Lambert, and was both a crafty songwriter and precise tenor and baritone voice in the traditional bluegrass and rural gospel four-part-harmony setting. The vocal sound of the Stanley Brothers in these early recordings was characterized as much by Lambert's third voice as by the name keepers of the group. Lambert's replacement in the Stanley Brothers was his fellow mandolinist and guitarist Curley Lambert, either his brother or cousin depending on the reference. As previously mentioned, Pee Wee Lambert's subsequent long-term collaboration was with another Curly Parker, meaning the mandolinist might beat out Moe Howard's record for time spent around people nicknamed "Curly."

[grassrootphilosopher]

Thank´s y´all for the input. This is pretty much what I found out too on the net after some lengthy hours. It´s mighty interesting to read. It is pretty indicative of how life as a working musician was back then.

Now what I wonder about is for one, why did he pass on so early?

And as he gave a job to J.D. Crowe and maybe J.D.´s next job was Jimmy Martin http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif Lambert´s band can´t have been half bad. So think about folks like him, like the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers (Curly Ray went with Ralph Stanley, Charly Cline was with Bill Monroe for some time...; the Goins Bros. went on their own), Hylo Frank Brown (Buzz Busby´s problems are known), why is it that Pee Wee Lambert has not tried to conect (back) with some of the major folks in Bluegrass? Any sugjestions?

[grassrootphilosopher]

I forgot, here are two good references to Pee Wee Lambert and some interesting reads:

http://www.nativeground.com/lesterwoodie.asp

http://books.google.com/books?i....-Oxr2CE (http://books.google.com/books?id=4nvNYdw_q18C&pg=PA55&dq=%22pee+wee+lambert%22&sig=bLwQjnoDEmY-nffXhcrU-Oxr2CE)

[morristownmando]

Curley Lambert, either his brother or cousin depending on the reference.
According to ralph stanley curley and pee wee were not related at all!

[fgodbey]

Pee Wee Lambert is featured in the January 1979 issue of Bluegrass Unlimited. #I think it's a pretty good article, but, then I wrote it. #To gain insight into Pee Wee's life, beyond what I knew from informal chats with him & from just hanging around where he played, I talked with Pee Wee's wife, Hazel, Ralph Stanley, Curly Parker, J.D. Crowe and dozens of others, including a bunch of the guys he picked with in and around Columbus, Ohio, after he had retired from the road... eg. John Hickman. #

When we were seeing him & listening to him play in the early-1960s in bars around Columbus there was always a sense of history, but somehow it seldom got in the way of any night's activities on stage. #As I recall, the bands he played with did not do much of the Stanley Brothers material that Pee Wee had been so large a part of; he seemed more comfortable doing Bill Monroe or Flatt & Scruggs songs. #I remember one night Carter and Ralph were playing a bar a block away from where Pee Wee was playing; I though how cool it would be if they came by after their gig... maybe sit in and sing one with Pee Wee... alas, it didn't happen, and it was probably unrealistic to think it might as both joints operated on the same schedule-- music from 9:00p.m. 'til 1:00a.m with precious little time between sets. That's a long night... speaking of which, it's way past bed time for a retired guy!
--Cheers, Frank

[fgodbey]

PS... J.D.Crowe's first paying job was here in Lexington KY with Esco Hankins. They played shows locally & regionally as well as on the radio. Picking with Pee Wee and Curly came a little later.
--FG

[evanreilly]

And I hope Frank Godbey sees the big flashing neon 'Welcome' sign here!!! Come back again soon. #
(Just in case there is anyone here who does not know him, he is the esteemed List-meister of "Our Little Cabin Home on the 'Net", Bgrass-L)

[cooper4205]

PS... J.D.Crowe's first paying job was here in Lexington KY with Esco Hankins. #They played shows locally & regionally as well as on the radio. #Picking with Pee Wee and Curly came a little later.
--FG
Cool stuff, thanks for posting it-- you learn something new everyday. In my earlier post I was going by the information in the BG Unlimited article you wrote on Pee Wee (it's a great one by the way) where you said it was J.D.'s first professional gig. Anyway, I got to do an interview with J.D. a month or so ago for an article I wrote, and I got a chance to ask him about working with Pee Wee. He had some pretty good things to say about him. Here's a quote from it.

Q - You got started with Pee Wee Lambert back in the 50's didn't you?

JD - "Oh yeah, really that's a ..., Curly Parker and Pee Wee Lambert, how'd you know about those? Pee Wee was a good one, I tell you what. I was just a youngster, I don't know probably 15, or something like that, or I was 16 maybe, and just kind of getting started. He was one of the guys that took me under his wing and helped me. I was very fortunate to be able to do that and be around people of that caliber. So that helped me a lot growing up and learning the music."

[woodwizard]

This is all great! reading guys. Thanks to all http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[fgodbey]

cooper4205 catches me:
"In my earlier post I was going by the information in the BG Unlimited article you wrote on Pee Wee (it's a great one by the way) where you said it was J.D.'s first professional gig."

Thanks for the kind words... Yep; that's what I thought then; and, as my focus was on Pee Wee, J.D. probably didn't think it was necessary to correct me at the time. Since then I've learned more, thanks mostly to my wife, Marty, who is writing a book-length biography of Crowe. She's a better interviewer than I ever could hope to be, and she's managed to get J.D. to remember all kinds of obscure details. Some of the old photos of him as a kid with his first banjo are priceless, and the ones on stage with Esco you'll have to see to believe <grin> The shots of him, age 12, watching Flatt & Scruggs at the Kentucky Mountain Barn Dance are pretty cool, too.

Thanks, too, to Evan for the welcome message; 'preciate it. Re: BGRASS-L -- heh, I hope you won't hold that against me! Back when it started in 1992 the "L" was about the only place to go on-line for a bluegrass fix. It's a lot different now; there must be thousands of lists, forums, web-sites & chat areas these days that cater to folks like us.

--Cheers, Frank

[Steve Williams]

Frank,

Thanks for bringing back memories of Columbus in the 60's. We were WV transplants who brought our music with us, I was a kid growing up off of South Hamilton Rd. at the time. I remember the grown-ups going hear the Stanleys play at some club/bar...the "Rainbow" something maybe...? #

My Dad bought my first fiddle off of Darrell Sanson's dad's fiddle player, a man named Gene Johnson. Did you by chance ever know him? Bob White told me years later that Johnson was a cousin of Ricky Skaggs. Just curious, I've still got the fiddle, it's a real hoss.

Steve Williams
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif